4.16.2011

Even since before I ever arrived at SS+K, there's always been a battle for "mayor" of the office on Foursquare. But this year, with a few more obsessive Foursquare users joining the team, what was once was a playful game has become obsessive competition. Now it's not enough to be mayor of SS+K, we're competing for mayor of everything- the kitchen, the cafe, the conference rooms, and various other key office spots. It almost feels like we have to get to work earlier just to walk around the office claiming all of our territory.

About a week ago some of us were talking about how the office Foursquare competition has started to feel a lot like a game of Risk, which people clearly controlling or conquering portions of the office map. We needed a system to keep track of who controlled what, a leader board for our office. So that weekend I put together a rough-and-tumble version of an SS+K Foursquare Mayor Mashup, relying heavily on the use of pre-existing social plug-ins. Here's what it looked like:

The version I hacked together helped show who was controlling which office location, but it didn't really convey the feeling of civilization-conquering competition that is taking place. So on Thursday afternoon a few of us talked about how we could build something a little more interesting in the spirit of upcoming FoursquareDay. And in a hurried 24 hours, with the help of our friends at Firefall Pro, we pushed out version one of the official SS+K Mayorshup (say goodbye to "mayor mashup").

We're pretty excited about our SS+K Mayorshup. For one, it helps convey just how much we love Foursquare. But also, this is just the beginning. We have a lot of cool ideas for what can be done on top of the Foursquare platform. And while you can expect a much more polished and interactive version of our Mayorshup to come soon, we hope to be launching some even more exciting things beyond our own office game of global domination as well. In the mean time, enjoy our Mayorshup and have a great Foursquare Day!